£27 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  DAY 

ASSOCIATION  OP 

HARLEM 

CELEBRATION,  1886 


-  • 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  DAY 

ASSOCIATION    OF 

,  HARLEM 

CELEBRATION,  1886 


It  ought  to  be  commemorated  as  the  day  of  deliver- 
ance by  solemn  acts  of  devotion  to  God  Almighty.  It 
ought  to  be  solemnized  with  pomp  and  parade,  with 
shows,  games,  sports,  guns,  bells,  bonfires,  and  illumina- 
tions from  one  end  of  this  continent  to  the  other,  from 
this  time  forward  forevermore. — JOHN  ADAMS  to  his, 
wife,  July  3d,  1776. 


NEW  YORK. 
IRnicfcerbocfcei: 

1887 


Press  of 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
New  York 


HISTORY    OF    PROCEEDINGS. 


At  a  meeting  of  Alexander  Hamilton  Post, 
182,  G.  A.  R.,  after  return  from  the  parade  on 
Decoration  Day,  1885,  Comrade  Samuel  G. 
Hayter  exclaimed  :  "  Why  can't  we  celebrate 
4th  of  July  ?  "  The  remark  "  struck  fire,"  but 
upon  discussion  it  was  deemed  too  late  to 
make  satisfactory  arrangements  for  that  year. 
It  was,  however,  determined  that  early  in  1886 
the  matter  should  be  brought  to  the  attention 
of  influential  and  patriotic  citizens  and  their 
cooperation  solicited. 

In  accordance  with  this  decision  the  follow- 
ing invitation  was  issued : 

HEADQUARTERS 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  POST,  No.  182, 

DEPARTMENT  OF  NEW  YORK,    G.    A.     R., 

Association  Hall,  I2gth  Street  and  Fourth  Avenue. 

NEW  YORK,  March  12,  1886. 

DEAR  SIR  : — You  are  respectfully  invited  to  attend  a 
joint  meeting  of  CITIZENS  OF  HARLEM  and  mem- 
bers of  this  Post,  at  the  Ninth  District  Court-Room,  No. 


1524801 


2  The  Independence  Day  Association. 

150  East  i25th  Street,  on  Tuesday  evening,  March  23d 
inst,  at  eight  o'clock,  to  take  into  consideration  the 
matter  of  a  celebration  of  Independence  Day,  1886,  in 
this  part  of  the  city. 

It  is  earnestly  hoped  that  you  will  make  a  special  effort 
to  be  present,  and  that  we  may  show  that  the  patriotic 
memories  and  glories  associated  with  the  Nation's  Birth- 
day have  not  yet  faded  out. 

Very  truly  yours, 

A.  M.  UNDERBILL,  Commander,          )  for  the 
W.  C.  REDDY,  Chr.  Post  Mem.  Com.  J    Post. 
HENRY  P.  McGowN. 

A  large  and  enthusiastic  meeting  was  held, 
resulting  in  the  determination  to  make  an  ef- 
fort for  the  purpose  of  redeeming  at  least  one 
section  of  our  city  from  the  reproach  which 
the  neglect  to  celebrate  our  country's  birth- 
day was  bringing  upon  our  people.  The  "In- 
dependence Day  Association  of  Harlem " 
was  formed,  with  Capt.  A.  M.  Underhill  as 
President,  J.  H.  Bogart  as  Secretary,  and 
A.  N.  Brockway,  M.  D.,  as  Treasurer.  An 
Executive  Committee  was  organized  by  the 
election  of  Charles  W.  Dayton  as  Chairman, 
Hon.  Henry  P.  McGown  as  Vice-Chairman, 
and  Capt.  William  C.  Reddy  as  Secretary. 
Meetings  of  the  Executive  Committee  were 
held  in  the  Ninth  District  Court-House  and 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  3 

in  the  Harlem  Democratic  Club-House,  whose 
members,  with  hearty  unanimity,  endorsed  the 
proposition  of  the  Grand  Army  post,  and 
gave  the  use  of  their  handsome  quarters  for 
meetings  of  the  several  sub-committees.  A 
Committee  of  Management,  consisting  of  the 
Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  and  the 
Chairmen  of  the  various  Sub-Committees,  was 
formed.  Spirited  work  was  at  once  begun, 
membership  increased  rapidly,  and  the  call  for 
funds  was  followed  by  contributions  in  such 
number  and  amount  as  showed  the  full  sym- 
pathy of  the  community  in  the  purpose  of 
the  Association.  Pastors  of  churches  of  all 
denominations,  Grand  Army  posts,  political 
clubs,  the  Washington  Heights  Century  Club, 
the  Mount  Morris  Club,  and  kindred  organi- 
zations of  every  variety,  benevolent,  musical, 
and  other  societies, — all  zealously  joined  in  the 
plan.  On  the  evening  of  June  nth  a  mass- 
meeting  took  place,  presided  over  by  Hon. 
Randolph  B.  Martine,  District  Attorney,  which 
was  addressed  by  the  Hon.  Theodore  E. 
Tomlinson  and  the  Hon.  James  T.  Van  Rens- 
selaer. 

The  Hon.  Henry  R.  Beekman,  President  of 
the  Department  of  Public  Parks,  enrolled  him- 


4  The  Independence  Day  Association. 

self  as  a  member  of  the  Association,  and  ob- 
tained Mount  Morris  Park  and  Morningside 
Park  for  the  special  use  of  the  people.  The  police 
authorities  readily  granted  permission  for  the 
route  for  the  parade.  The  public  press  cheered 
the  movement  on.  The  Elevated  Railroad 
companies  donated  advantageous  advertising 
rates.  The  Twelfth  Ward  Bank  gave  the 
use  of  its  banking  house  and  the  services  of 
its  officers  and  clerks  in  raising  and  taking 
care  of  the  funds  of  the  Association. 

The  following  circular  was  issued  and  dis- 
tributed : 

HURRAH   FOR   FOURTH   OF   JULY  ! 
Independence  Day  to  be  Celebrated  in  Harlem  this  Year 

AS   IN    OLD    TIMES. 

THE  HARLEM  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE  CELEBRATION  OF 
INDEPENDENCE  DAY,   1886, 

having  been  formed,  the  undersigned  have  been  ap- 
pointed a  sub-committee,  to  be  known  as  the  Decora- 
tion Committee,  whose  duty  it  is  to  call  upon  the 
citizens  of  Harlem  and  induce  them  to  appropriately 
decorate  their  residences  with 

FLAGS   AND   BUNTING, 

and  to  take  part  in  the  festivittes  of  the  day  and  evening, 
to  be  announced  hereafter  by  the  Executive  Committee. 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  5 

It  is  the  intention  of  the  Association  to  celebrate  the 
day,  from  early  sunrise  to  the  last  rocket  at  night,  in  the 
good  old-fashioned  way  we  used  to  do  when  we  were 
boys.  To  do  this,  and  to 

PAINT    THE    TOWN    RED,   WHITE,    AND    BLUE 

with  Flags  and  Bunting  on  every  house  in  Harlem,  from 
cupola  to  cellar,  the  Committee  needs  the  assistance  of 
all  and  especially  those  who  will  volunteer  to  take  charge 
of  the  block  upon  which  he  resides  and  endeavor  to 
induce  his  neighbors  to  join  with  him  in  a  general 
decoration  of  their  houses. 

Communication  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Decoration 
Committee  is  therefore  solicited  from  all  persons  who 
will  undertake  the  management  of  his  block,  stating  the 
street,  between  what  avenues,  whether  north  or  south, 
east  or  west  side  of  the  block. 

T.  M.  SEAVER, 

Chairman  of  Decoration  Committee, 
No.  115  West  I25th  Street. 

COMMITTEE. 

E.  WELLS  SACKETT,      E.  M.  BLOOMER,      T.  E.  D.  POOWER, 
DR.  JOHN  SHRADY,       ALSTON  CULVER,      THOS.  RICE, 
WASHINGTON  WINSOR,  A.  RASINES,  CHARLES  WANIER. 

Z.  J.  HALPIN,  THOS.  WRIGHT. 

The  sub-committees  worked  night  and  day, 
and  issued  another  circular  in  red  and  blue 
type  on  white  paper. 


6  The  Independence  Day  Association. 

INDEPENDENCE    DAY    ASSOCIATION    OF 

HARLEM. 
1776  1886 

A.  M.  UNDERBILL,  President. 

HON.  H.  P.  McGowN,  Vice- President. 
J.    H.  BOGART,   Secretary. 

DR.  A.  N.  BROCKWAY,  Treasurer. 


GLORIOUS  CELEBRATION  OF  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ! 
HARLEM  TO    THE    FRONT! 


The  Citizens  of  Harlem,  having  conceived  the  idea 
of  a  Grand  Celebration  of  the  coming  Fourth 
of  July,  a  meeting  of  many  of  the  prominent  citizens 
was  called,  and  the  unanimous  response  was,  Go 
Ahead. 

The  above-named  Association  was  thereupon  formed, 
composed  of  the  gentlemen  whose  names  appear  an- 
nexed ;  and  the  Committee  of  Management  now 
take  pleasure  in  announcing  that  the  following  pro- 
gramme for  the  appropriate  observance  of  the  day  and 
evening  has  been  decided  upon  : 

SUNRISE. 

Minute  Guns  at  Mount  Morris  Park  to  greet  the  Na- 
tion's Birthday. 

PARADE. 

Early  in  the  forenoon  a  parade  of  the  Military,  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic  Posts,  Knights  Templars,  and 
other  organizations  will  be  made.  Line  of  march  will 
be  published  hereafter. 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  7 

CHILDREN'S  PROCESSION. 

At  the  same  time  a  Grand  Procession  of  the  Children 
from  all  the  Schools  in  Harlem.  To  be  followed  by  the 

.  FANTASTICS.  • 

A  Grotesque  Display  of  Antiques  and  Horribles  in 
Characteristic  Costumes. 

FLAG    RAISING. 

The  several  processions  will  march  to  Mount  Morris 
•Park,  to  witness  the  raising  of  the  New  Flag  upon  the 
New  Flag-Staff,  to  be  erected  in  Mount  Morris  Park  by 
the  City,  when 

"  THE    STAR-SPANGLED    BANNER  " 

will  be  sung  by  all  the  Children  from  the  Public  Schools, 
accompanied  by  the  Bands,  after  which  an 

ORATION 

will  be  delivered  in  honor  of  the  event,  and  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  read,  when  the  parade  will  be  dis- 
missed and  the  old 

RELICS, 

identified  with  the  history  of  Harlem,  be  displayed  in  a 
tent  upon  the  grounds. 

DINNER. 

At  three  o'clock  a  Grand  Dinner  will  be  served,  to 
which  the  Mayor,  Aldermen,  and  other  public  officials 
have  been  invited,  and  to  which  all  are  cordially  asked 
to  be  present,  at  $3.00  per  head. 


The  Independence  Day  Association. 

SUNSET. 

With  the  departing  day  a  National  Salute  will  be  fired 
from  the  walls  of  Morningside  Park,  where  the  Music 
Stand  will  be  erected  for  the 

GRAND   CONCERT, 

which  will  be  given  by  several  of  the  leading  Bands  of 
the  City.  After  which  the  grandest  display  of 

FIREWORKS 

ever  presented  on  this  Continent,  will  be  exhibited  under 
the  personal  supervision  of  Mr.  James  Pain  of  London, 
who  has  had  charge  of  the  magnificent  displays  of  Fire- 
works at  Coney  Island,  for  several  years  past.  Prom- 
inently among  the  set  pieces  to  be  presented  are  : 

The  Falls  of  Niagara,  100  feet  long  by  50  feet  high, 
pouring  a  stream  of  liquid  fire  over  the  walls  of  Morn- 
ingside Park. 

Pain's  mammoth  5o-inch  Bombs,  the  largest  ever  fired  by 
any  Pyrotechnist  in  the  World. 

Colossal  Fire  Portraits  of  Washington,  Lincoln,  and 
Grant,  80  by  30  feet. 

Grand  Bouquet  of  1,000  Colored  Rockets. 

The  Pleiades  or  Seven  Floating  Stars. 

The  Aurora  Borealis. 

Silver  Cloud,  studded  with  Sapphires. 

Three  Revolving  Suns,  cutting  a  spray  of  fire  150  feet  in 
circumference. 

The  Firework  Chromotrope. 

The  Pyrotechnical  Harlequinade. 

The  Flight  of  Pearl  Streamers. 

The  Star-Spangled  Banner. 

The  Shell  of  Shells— The  Indian  Juggler. 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  9 

Great  Shell  of  Asteroids. 

Barnum's  Elephant,  Alice,  will  cross   and   recross   the 

grounds  with  life-like  action  of  limbs. 
The  Saxon  Cross  in  five  mutations. 
The  Forest  of  Fire  ;  pronounced  by  the  press  and  public 

one  of  the  finest  pyrotechnical  effects  ever  witnessed. 
Batteries  of  Roman  Candles  discharging  myriads  of  Fiery 

Globules. 
Ascent  of  Monster  Balloons,  with  powerful  magnesium 

lights  of  changeable  colors  and  jewels. 
Fountains,  with  showers  of  variegated  gems. 
Finale  :  Grand    Patriotic   Piece   to   be   devised  by  the 

Committee. 

GOOD-NIGHT    AND    GOD    BLESS   HARLEM. 

Several  prominent  Bands  of  Music  from  the  City  have 
been  engaged  for  the  day  and  evening. 

To  carry  out  the  foregoing  programme  a  considerable 
sum  of  money  will  be  required,  and  the  Committee  look 
confidently  to  the  patriotic  people  of  Harlem  to  support 
them  in  their  efforts.  Subscription  books  are  now  in  the 
hands  of  the  Executive  Committee  and  a  generous 
amount  already  subscribed — most  of  which  has  come 
from  down-town  people,  who  have  little  or  no  interest  in 
Harlem.  This  is  a  Harlem  matter  and  of  interest  to 
every  Harlemite.  Now  join  hands  with  the  Committee 
and  make  it  the  success  it  deserves  to  be.  Contributions 
will  be  received  by  the  Twelfth  Ward  Bank,  No.  152  East 
1 25th  Street,  the  Treasurer,  or  any  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Management. 

CHARLES  W.  DAYTON, 

Chairman  of  Committee  of  Management. 
W.  C.  REDDY,  Secretary. 


TO         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

COMMITTEE    OF    MANAGEMENT  : 

A.  M.  UNDERBILL,  Chairman  Finance  Committee. 

DAVID  N.  CARVALHO.  Chairman  Press  Committee. 

HON.  H.  P.  McGOWN,  Chairman  Committee  on  Relics. 

J.  H.  BOGART,  Chairman  Committee  on  Fireworks. 

WM.  PETERKIN,  Chairman  Committee  on  Flag-Staff. 

T.  M.  SEAVER,  Chairman  Decoration  Committee. 

JORDAN  L.  MOTT,  Chairman  Com.  on  Invitation  and  Entertainment. 

EDWIN  F.  COREY,  Chairman  Committee  Public  Exercises. 

GEORGE  A.  J.  NORMAN,  Chairman  Committee  on  Parade. 

D.  P.  ARNOLD,  Chairman  Committee  on  Artillery. 

ED.  P.  STEERS.  JAMES  A.  COLVIN. 

JAS.  M.  DEVEAU.  WILLIAM   PARSONS. 

SAM'L  GOODMAN.  DAVID  RUTSKY. 

JOHN  J.  QUINN.  DR.   A.  N.  BROCKWAY. 

DR.  J.  H.  DEMAREST.  CYRUS  O.  HUBBELL. 

ISAAC  E.  WRIGHT.  GEO.  H.  BURFORD. 

ASHBEL  P.  FITCH. 

When  the  morning  of  the  5th  of  July  came 
(the  4th  being  Sunday)  the  Association  was 
enabled  to  prove  that  there  were  patriotic 
hearts  and  hands  ready  and  willing  to  preserve 
and  express  the  memories  around  which  cluster 
all  the  thoughts,  impulses  and  aspirations 
which  have  made  ours  the  greatest  Republic 
in  history. 

Promptly  at  sunrise  half  past  four  A.M.,  on 
the  summit  of  Mount  Morris,  there  were  as- 
sembled over  3,000  men  and  women,  and 
children  of  the  Public  Schools,  the  latter 
marshalled  under  the  direction  of  David  E. 
Gaddis,  Esq.,  Principal  of  Grammar  School 
No.  54,  to  witness  the  raising  of  the  large 
American  flag,  the  gift  of  the  Association. 
Mr.  Beekman,  through  whose  efforts  a  lofty 
flag-staff  had  been  erected,  was  present. 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  1 1 

Charles  W.  Dayton,  on  behalf  of  the  Asso- 
ciation, in  presenting  the  colors,  said  : 
"  Fellow-Citizens, 

"  This  assemblage  at  this  early  hour  is  an 
assurance  that  the  American  heart — of  every 
creed  and  race — remains  true  to  the  ancient 
landmarks  of  liberty.  The  spot  on  which  we 
stand  was  two  hundred  years  ago  so  wild  and 
unwholesome  that  even  savages  avoided  it. 
As  early  as  1807  it  was  laid  out  as  a  public 
square,  but  not  until  within  my  recollection 
has  it  become  one  of  the  ornaments  of  our 
growth — considered  by  many  the  most  attrac- 
tive of  our  parks. 

"  From  this  elevation  our  eyes  rest  upon 
Harlem  Heights,  where  the  valiant  little  band 
of  the  Continental  army  fearlessly  endeavored 
to  stem  the  march  of  England's  hosts. 

"  Upon  this  hilltop — in  honor  of  this  day — 
the  Park  Commissioners  have  erected  this 
towering  flag-staff,  and  the  Independence  Day 
Association  of  Harlem  presents  this  flag  to  the 
Department  of  Public  Parks. 

"  This  Association  is  a  spontaneous  mani- 
festation by  the  people  of  our  locality  who  be- 
lieve that  '  Fourth  of  July'  should  be  rescued 
from  the  danger  of  becoming  a  tradition, — a 


1 2         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

day  that  should  be  devoted  with  zeal  and  en- 
thusiasm by  all  the  people  of  our  common 
country  to  grateful  rejoicings,  —  the  like  of 
which  there  is  no  other  day  in  all  our  calendar. 

"  Most  valuable  and  hearty  cooperation 
have  we  had  from  you,  Mr.  Beekman,  and 
from  your  confreres  in  the  Department  of 
Public  Parks. 

"  Believe  me,  your  help  and  generous  sup- 
port are  most  highly  appreciated  as  a  public 
service  in  thus  aiding  to  light  anew  the  smoul- 
dering fires  of  patriotism. 

"  Here  and  now  the  brazen  throats  of  can- 
non, the  loud  huzza,  the  song  of  praise,  will 
tell  the  whole  world  that  civilization,  art,  and 
wealth  have  not  cooled  our  blood  towards  the 
memory  of  those  who  created  the  superlative 
possibilities  under  which  we  live. 

"  The  morning  kisses  our  beautiful  emblem, 
the  night  departs  as  the  sunburst  illumines  our 
banner  ;  birds,  trees,  and  flowers  lift  their  voi- 
ces and  their  fragrance  to  greet  the  folds  of 
our  dear  flag,  so  full  of  story ;  these  children 
chant  a  melody  springing  from  pure  hearts, 
which  awakens  the  almost  lost  echoes  of  these 
hills  and  vales,  as  if  appealing  to  our  God, 
that  this,  the  gladdest  of  all  our  country's  days, 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  13 

may  ever  be  the  first  and  dearest  to  every 
man,  woman,  and  child,  who  lives  under  this, 
the  grandest  Republic  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind. 

"  Mr.  President,  take  this  flag,  not  merely 
as  a  mark  of  gratitude  from  the  patriotic  citi- 
zens of  Harlem,  but  as  significant  of  a  deter- 
mination on  the  part  of  the  metropolis  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  that  henceforth  this 
day  is  to  be  commemorated,  not  only  in 
thought,  but  in  deeds  expressive  of  great  joy 
for  the  freedom  gained  for  us  by  the  Fathers 
of  the  Revolution. 

"  In  contemplation  of  this  scene  words  be- 
come lost  in  ecstacy  ! 

"  Vincit  Amor  Patrice  ! 

"  The  love  of  my  country  overcomes." 

Mr.  Beekman  spoke  in  response  as  follows  : 

"  On  behalf  of  the  Mayor,  Aldermen,  and 
Commonalty  of  the  City  of  New  York,  I  ac- 
cept this  flag,  which  the  patriotic  citizens  of 
Harlem  have  presented  to  grace  the  summit 
of  Mount  Morris. 

"Its  stars  and  stripes  are  emblems  of  the 
birth  and  progress  of  our  country.  The  stripes, 
typical  of  the  thirteen  States  which  first  formed 
the  elements  of  our  Union,  and  the  stars  ever 


1 4         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

increasing  with  the  increase  of  States  as  the 
borders  of  the  far  west  recede  before  the  ad- 
vancing tide  of  civilization. 

"  It  has  become  dearer  to  us  for  the  vicissi- 
tudes through  which  it  has  passed.  Thousands 
have  laid  down  their  lives  in  its  defence,  and 
the  truer,  indissoluble  Union  which  it  now 
typifies  has  been  cemented  with  their  blood. 
When  we  gaze  upon  its  bright  folds  on  this 
festal  day,  let  us  hold  in  grateful  remembrance 
those  gallant  men,  and  pay  our  tribute  to  those 
who  saved  as  well  as  those  who  founded  our 
Republic." 

Capt.  Wm.  Peterkin,  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Flag  and  Flag-staff,  handed  the  hal- 
liards to  Mr.  Beekman,  who  proceeded  to  raise 
the  flag,  while  the  drum  corps  of  Judson  Kilpat- 
rick  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  beat  a  reveille.  One  thou- 
sand schoolboys,  under  the  direction  of  Miss  At- 
kinson, then  sang  "The  Star-Spangled  Banner," 
and  as  the  last  strain  died  away,  a  salute  of 
thirty-eight  (one  for  each  State)  guns  by  the 
First  Battery  of  Artillery,under  the  command  of 
Captain  Louis  Wendel,  was  fired,  after  which 
the  public-schoolboys  sang  " America ";  and 
the  gathering  dispersed. 

At  about  ten  o'clock  the  parade  formed  and 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  1 5 

marched  in  the  following  order,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  George  A.  J.  Norman,  Grand 
Marshal  : 

HEADQUARTERS, 

INDEPENDENCE  DAY  ASSOCIATION  OF  HARLEM. 

NEW  YORK,  June  30,  1886.  ' 
GENERAL  ORDER. 

The  different  organizations  taking  part  in  the  parade 
for  the  celebration  of  the  National  Birthday  on  July  5, 
1886,  will  form  in  the  following  order  : 

FIRST  DIVISION. 

On  East  n6th  Street,  between  Third  and  Lexington  Avenues, 

right  on  Lexington  Avenue. 

Grand  Marshal  Geo.  A.  J.  Norman  and  Staff. 

SEVENTY-FIRST  REGIMENT,  N.  G.  S.  N.  Y. 

Colonel  E.  A.  McAlpin. 

VETERAN  ZOUAVE  BATTALION. 

Colonel  Thomas  F.  Sheehan. 

COLUMBIA  GUARD. 

Capt.  W.  F.  Kelly. 

FIRST  BATTERY,  N.  G.  S.  N.  Y. 

Capt.  Louis  Wendel. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 

On  East  n6th  Street,  between  Lexington  and  Fourth  Avenues, 

right  on  Lexington  Avenue. 

Commander  G.  S.  Bevans,  Marshal. 

Commander  W.  P.  Walton,  Commander  A.  Francisco, 

Aides. 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  POST,  No.  182,  G.  A.  R. 
Commander  A.  M.  Underbill. 


1 6         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

SUMNER  POST,  No.  24,  G.  A.  R. 

Commander  William  Peterkin. 
GEORGE  G.  MEADE  POST,  No.  38,  G.  A.  R. 

Commander  Jno.  J.  McConnell. 
FARRAGUT  POST,  No.  75,  G.  A.  R. 

Commander  R.  S.  Heilferty. 
OLIVER  TILDEN  POST,  No.  96,  G.  A.  R. 

Commander  J.  Wesley  Smith. 

WASHINGTON'S  PRESIDENTIAL  CARRIAGE. 
Kindly  loaned  by  Capt.  Ben.  Richardson.     Drawn  by  six  Percheron 

horses.     With  suitable  escort. 
Gen.  Abram  Dally,  Veteran  War  of  1812,  and  Veteran  Henry  Marks. 

THIRD  DIVISION. 

On  East  nyth  Street,  between  Third  and  Lexington  Avenues, 

right  on  Lexington  Avenue. 

Commander  S.  H.  Bailey,  Marshal. 

JUDSON  KILPATRICK  POST,  No.  143,  G.  A.  R. 

Senior  Vice-Commander  McGrann. 

VAN  HOUTEN  POST,  No.  3,  G.  A.  R.,  Jersey  City. 

VANDERBILT  POST,  No.  136,  G.  A.  R. 

Commander  J.  D.  Terry. 
JOHN  E.  BENDIX  POST,  No.  402,  G.  A.  R. 

Commander  J.  J.  Humphreys. 
FRED.  HECKER  POST,  No.  408,  G.  A.  R. 

Commander  Albert  Fest. 
PROVISIONAL  BATTALION,  G.  A.  R. 

FOURTH  DIVISION. 

On  East  nyth  Street,  between  Lexington  and  Fourth  Avenues, 
right  on  Lexington  Avenue. 

Wm.  D.  May,  Marshal. 

W.  Lee  Darling,  William  White, 

Aides. 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  i  7 

HARLEM  SCHUETZEN  CORPS. 

HARLEM  TURNVEREIN. 
HARLEM  MAENNERCHOR. 

UNIFORMED  BOYS  OF  HARLEM  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 

UNUNIFORMED  BOYS  OF  HARLEM  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 

GIRLS  OF  HARLEM  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 


Formation  will  be  twelve  files  front  in  single  rank. 

Assembly  at  9  A.M.,  prompt. 

Column  will  move  at  9:30  A.M.,  sharp. 

Bands  of  Music  will  report  to  Grand  Marshal,  and  by 
him  assigned  to  positions  in  line.  This  does  not  refer  to 
post  fife-and-drum  corps. 

Line  of  March  will  be  up  Lexington  Avenue  to  i26th 
Street,  through  i26th  Street  to  Fifth  Avenue,  up  Fifth 
Avenue  to  i3oth  Street,  through  i3oth  Street  to  Seventh 
Avenue,  down  Seventh  Avenue  to  i23d  Street,  through 
1 23d  Street  to  New  Avenue,  up  New  Avenue  to  i24th 
Street,  to  Fifth  Avenue  entrance  of  Mount  Morris  Park, 
where  Parade  will  be  dismissed. 

As  it  is  proposed  to  move  promptly  on  time,  Com- 
manders and  Marshals  of  Division  will  see  that  their 
Commands  are  ready  to  march  at  the  hour  named. 

GEO.  A.  J.  NORMAN, 

Grand  Marshal. 

Shortly  after  noon,  about  twenty  thousand 
persons  assembled  in  Mount  Morris  Park, 
where  a  suitable  and  tastefully  decorated  plat- 
form had  been  erected,  in  front  of  an  extensive 
seating  capacity. 


1 8          The  Independence  Day  Association. 

Capt.   Underbill,  President  of  the  Associa- 
tion, called  the  meeting  to  order  and  said  : 
"  Fellow-Citizens  : 

"  In  organizing  the  Independence  Day  As- 
sociation of  Harlem,  we  took  not  into  consid- 
eration whether  the  citizens  who  wished  to 
join  with  us  were  white  or  black,  Democrat 
or  Republican,  naturalized  or  native-born  ; 
whether  in  the  by-gone  time  they  had  worn 
the  blue  or  had  worn  the  gray.  The  only 
qualification  for  membership  was  patriotism  ; 
that  one  broad  country  claimed  our  allegiance  ; 
that  one  bright,  starry  banner,  the  symbol  of 
that  country's  greatness,  claimed  our  devotion. 
On  that  simple  platform  we  harmonized,  and 
resolved  that  on  the  anniversary  day  of  our 
nation's. birth,  we  would  lay  aside  our  cares  of 
state,  our  perplexities  of  business,  and  by  pub- 
lic exercises,  parades,  and  other  appropriate 
displays,  endeavor  to  implant  in  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  the  rising  generation  that  love  of 
country,  and  that  loyalty  to  its  flag,  which  will 
enable  them  to  hand  down  to  their  children 
the  great  blessing  that  has  come  down  to  us 
from  our  fathers — a  free,  enlightened,  and 
prosperous  republic. 

"  To  the  more  than  six  hundred  patriotic 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  1 9 

citizens,  who  have  subscribed  an  aggregate  of 
more  than  five  thousand  dollars  to  pay  the  ex- 
penses of  this  celebration,  we  tender  our  heart- 
felt thanks. 

"In  the  early  days  of  our  Association,  w,e 
received  the  hearty  approval  and  generous 
financial  aid  of  one  who  has  since  given  time, 
thought,  and  wise  council  to  our  deliberations ; 
in  fact,  to  him,  in  great  measure,  is  due  the 
successful  culmination  of  our  efforts.  It  is 
proper  that  we  should  honor  him,  and  it  is  a 
gratification  to  us  that  he  further  honors  us  by 
consenting  to  preside  over  these  public  servi- 
ces. I  present  to  you,  therefore,  as  chairman 
of  this  meeting,  the  Honorable  Henry  R. 
Beekman." 

Mr.  Beekman  said  : 
"  Fellow-Citizens  of  Harlem: 

"We  are  assembled  together  to-day  to  cele- 
brate the  birthday  of  a  nation. 

"  It  is  a  long  time  to  look  back — these  one 
hundred  and  ten  years  which  have  gathered 
themselves  together  since  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  made  by  our  forefathers  in 
a  strain  so  lofty,  in  words  so  temperate,  and  in 
statement  so  logical  and  true  as  to  give  it  rank 
among  the  great  productions  which  history 


2O         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

uses   as  milestones   to  mark  the  progress  of 
human  liberty. 

"It  seems  strange  to  us  that  it  should  have 
been  necessary  to  rehearse  to  the  world  those 
natural  and  inalienable  rights  of  man  which 
are  now  and  so  long  have  been  enjoyed  by 
millions  of  people  in  the  security  of  their  uni- 
versal acceptance  by  the  civilized  world.  But 
although  even  then  it  was  plain  that  if  the  his- 
tory of  the  English  people  in  their  centuries  of 
warfare  against  absolutism  meant  any  thing,  its 
meaning  could  not  be  more  clearly  stated  than 
our  ancestors  penned  it,  we  must  remember 
that  "the  right  divine  of  kings  to  govern 
wrong,"  as  Pope  happily  phrases  it,  still  re- 
tained some  of  its  old-time  influence  over  the 
minds  of  men.  Its  effect  upon  our  ancestors 
was  obvious.  Indeed  it  was  only  after  years 
of  endurance  of  arbitrary,  unjust,  and  despotic 
acts  on  the  part  of  the  British  government, 
and  after  repeated  remonstrances  had  been  an- 
swered by  further  acts  of  oppression,  that  they 
ventured  to  take  up  arms,  and  then  only  under 
shelter  of  the  legal  fiction  that  they  were  fight- 
ing the  king's  minister  and  not  the  king.  The 
logic  of  events  soon  swept  away  this  last  shred 
of  superstition,  and  gave  birth  to  that  coura- 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  2 1 

geous  act  which  has  established  for  all  time  the 
principle,  that  those  who  rule  over  the  people 
are  the  servants  of  the  people — not  their 
masters. 

"  Out  of  that  act  undertaken  amid  doubts  and 
dangers,  and  made  good  by  the  unselfish  devo- 
tion of  our  ancestors  against  odds  that  seemed 
insurmountable,  has  come  this  goodly  heritage 
which  we  now  enjoy. 

"  The  government  they  founded  has  proved 
its  claim  to  stability  by  the  crucial  test  of  civil 
war,  and  as  a  successful  demonstration  of  the 
capacity  of  a  people  for  self-government,  has 
exercised,  and  still  continues  to  exercise,  a 
potent  influence  upon  the  rest  of  the  world  in 
the  enlargement  of  personal  freedom. 

"While  the  revolutionary  struggle  has  thus 
become  an  important  element  in  the  history  of 
all  nations,  to  us  belongs  by  right  of  inheri- 
tance the  honor  and  glory  which  envelops  it. 
It  is  proper  and  seemly  that  with  each  recurring 
anniversary,  we  should  recall  the  brave  acts 
and  loyal  devotion  to  principle  of  our  fore- 
fathers, to  whom  we  owe  this  broad  land  teem- 
ing with  milions  of  inhabitants,  rich  in  resources 
undergoing  speedy  development,  and  under  a 
government  strong,  stable,  and  free. 


22         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

"To  you,  fellow-citizens  of  Harlem,  is  due 
the  credit  of  reviving  this  time-honored  custom 
with  all  of  old-time  and  due  observance.  It  is 
also  especially  appropriate  that  the  celebration 
should  be  held  on  this  spot,  so  full  of  patriotic 
associations.  These  hills,  now  so  peaceful,  a 
century  ago  rang  with  the  rude  clamor  of  con- 
tending armies  in  the  great  contest  we  are  now 
commemorating,  while  to  our  left,  but  a  short 
distance  away,  rests  in  his  last  sleep  the  great 
captain  under  whose  gallant  leadership  the 
armies  of  the  Union  achieved  their  victories. 
Mingled  with  our  thoughts  of  the  early  strug- 
gles of  the  Republic,  irresistibly  arise  recollec- 
tions of  those  days  of  darkness  and  trial,  with- 
in the  memory  of  so  many  of  us,  when  the  call 
came  to  the  people  to  rise  in  defence  of  the 
government  which  their  fathers  had  founded. 
The  response  which  poured  into  the  battle- 
field the  flower  of  our  youth  and  manhood, 
bore  witness  to  the  fact  that  the  spirit  of  sev- 
enty-six still  lived  among  us,  as  stern  in  purpose, 
as  indomitable  in  endurance,  as  full  of  self-re- 
nunciation, as  when  our  ancestors  pledged  their 
lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor  to 
the  cause  of  liberty  and  self-government.  It 
is  our  pride  to  have  associated  with  us,  as  ac- 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  23 

tive  participants  in  these  ceremonies,  gallant 
comrades  of  that  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic, which,  though  no  longer  militant,  still 
exists  to  perpetuate  the  memories  of  great 
achievments,  and  to  keep  alive  the  patriotism 
without  which  national  life  can  have  no  vitality. 
May  the  day  be  far  distant  when  the  due  com- 
memoration of  our  national  anniversary  shall 
be  considered  any  less  than  one  of  the  most 
sacred  duties  of  true  citizenship." 

Then  followed  music  by  the  yist  Regiment 
Band,  singing  by  two  thousand  boys  and  girls, 
under  the  direction  of  Miss  Atkinson. 

The  Reverend  Samuel  H.  Virgin,  D.D.,  in- 
voked the  divine  blessing.  (See  Appendix.) 

As  this  prayer  ended,  the  Harlem  Maenner- 
chor  rendered  some  exquisite  music,  which  was 
followed  by  a  reading  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  by  the  Honorable  Joseph  Koch. 

Jerome  Buck,  the  orator  of  the  day,  on  being 
introduced,  said : 
"  Mr.  Chairman,  Fellow-Citizens  : 

"  It  would  be  a  strange,  a  sad,  and  a  shame- 
ful neglect  if  we,  living  here  in  Harlem,  upon 
these  historic  plains,  consecrated  by  crimsoned 
baptism  to  early  and  successful  achievements 
of  liberty,  should  at  all  times  fail  to  celebrate 


24         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

with  becoming  ceremonies  the  inspiring  cause 
that  has  forever  embalmed,  in  our  nation's  his- 
tory, the  spot  upon  which  we  stand  ; — we,  who 
live  here,  surrounded  by  thronging  memories 
of  the  noblest  endeavors,  among  immortal 
traditions,  most  heroic  in  our  nation's  heroic 
story.  Shall  they,  like  the  sweet  songs  of  Or- 
pheus, that  moved  the  very  stones,  fade  from 
grateful  memory  and  pass  into  a  doubtful  tale  ; 
or  shall  our  yielding  hearts  thrill  in  reciprocal 
response,  as  the  stirring  epic  is  told,  inspiring 
loftier  action,  wiser  resolutions,  a  solemn  dedi- 
cation to  higher  civic  virtues,  as  the  hallowed 
genius  of  this  place  recounts  the  precious  and 
priceless  deeds  enacted  here  on  the  grassy 
plains  and  eternal  hills  of  old  Harlem. 

"  That  consummate  statesman  and  accom- 
plished orator,  Edmund  Burke,  said  with  orac- 
ular force,  that  those  who  did  not  fitly  com- 
memorate the  brave  and  good  deeds  of  their 
ancestors  were  never  likely  to  do  any  thing  in 
their  day  and  generation  worthy  of  record  or 
remembrance,  and  that  we  may  save  ourselves 
from  the  deserved  rebuke  and  throw  off  the 
listless  torpor  that  has  shamefully  taken  pos- 
session of  us,  awake  to  the  brave  deeds  of  our 
ancestors,  and  assemble,  as  we  do  this  glorious 


Harlem  Celebration  of  i88 6.  25 

morn,  to  celebrate  that  anniversary  which 
made  the  united  colonies  of  America  free  and 
independent  States  in  the  family  of  nations. 
We  meet  not  only  to  listen  again  to  the  defiant 
declaration  of  the  immortal  signers,  and  give 
our  testimony  to  the  vitality  of  the  principles 
set  forth  in  that  inimitable  paper,  so  impress- 
ively read  by  our  friend,  Judge  Koch — that 
declaration  which  Buckle  said  should  be  hung 
up  in  the  nursery  of  every  king,  and  blazoned 
on  the  porch  of  every  royal  palace  ;  but  also 
to  congratulate  ourselves  upon  the  success  of 
that  struggle,  and  indulge  in  a  pardonable  ex- 
ultation in  the  vastness  of  the  result  and  the 
grandeur  of  the  prospect  before  us  ;  but  not, 
however,  as  a  convenient  outlet  to  the  effer- 
vescing exuberance  of  national  vanity. 

"To  fully  recount  the  sanguinary  but  glorious 
spectacle  enacted  here  one  hundred  and  ten 
years  ago,  would  be  an  imputation  alike  on 
your  patriotism,  gratitude,  and  duty  ;  yet  to 
briefly  recall  but  a  glimpse  of  the  thrilling  and 
gratifying  spectacle,  is  due  the  occasion  and 
your  sympathetic  presence.  You  will  remem- 
ber, after  the  overwhelming  defeat  on  Long 
Island,  the  blackest  and  most  menacing  cloud 
settled  upon  our  heroes,  whether  in  the  field 


26         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

or  in  council.  This  bitter  calamity  and  un- 
toward action  paralyzed  the  very  hearts  and 
hopes  of  the  colonies.  It  was  then  that  Wash- 
ington, by  the  most  extraordinary  exercise  of 
his  masterful  genius,  which  elicited  the  warm 
plaudits  of  that  greatest  of  generals,  Frederick 
the  Great,  through  the  inky  gloom  and  fog  of 
an  August  night,  withdrew  his  torn  and  de- 
sponding battalions  from  before  an  exultant 
enemy  flushed  with  victory,  and,  with  a  wide 
and  deep  river  in  his  rear,  safely  conducted 
them,  not  without  the  greatest  hazard,  to  the 
upper  end  of  Manhattan  Island.  And  here  was 
he  threatened  with  the  utmost  peril,  for  the 
enemy,  having  left  Long  Island,  moved  toward 
the  heights  of  Harlem,  intending  to  divide  the 
gathering  divisions  of  our  army.  And  then,  too, 
as  if  this  menacing  disaster  was  not  enough, 
Washington  had  to  encounter  the  most  trying 
emergency  of  the  war.  For  here,  hard  by,  at 
Kipp's  Bay,  did  two  brigades  of  Connecticut 
troops  take  to  their  heels  in  the  most  ignomin- 
ious scamper,  in  the  presence  of  threescore  of 
redcoats,  wringing  from  the  very  depths  of 
Washington's  soul  the  agonized  cry:  "Are  these 
the  men  with  whom  I  am  to  defend  America?" 
Happily  for  us,  the  English  did  not  seize  the 


Harlem,  Celebration  of  1886.  2  7 

heights,  but  went  on  their  way  along  the  East 
River  back  to  the  city.  Here,  entrenched  be- 
hind these  sacred  hills  and  behind  the  numer- 
ous fortifications  thrown  up  everywhere  about 
us  by  his  toiling  soldiers,  so  that  with  every 
footfall  we  press  holy  ground  ;  with  one  wing 
on  the  left  and  the  other  on  the  right  by 
McGown's  pass,  a  name  nobly  borne  by  one  of 
our  most  patriotic  and  valued  citizens,  Judge 
McGown  ;  with  his  headquarters  alternately 
at  Mott  Tavern,  I43d  Street  and  Eighth 
Avenue,  and  the  Morris  House  at  i6gth  Street, 
Washington  anxiously  awaited  the  movements 
of  the  vigilant  enemy.  And  it  was  now  that  he 
wrote  the  prediction  so  gloriously  verified  — 
"  that  if  the  enemy  will  attack,  he  will  be  de- 
feated, if  our  men  will  act  as  if  they  were 
worthy  the  blessings  of  freedom."  And  the 
enemy  did  attack,  and  well  our  men  showed 
that  they  were  worthy  freedom's  immeasurable 
blessings.  It  was  at  this  time,  near  this  mons 
sacra,  that  Washington  first  met  that  young  and 
splendid  genius,  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  did 
so  much  to  shape  and  establish  the  wonderful 
Constitution  of  our  country,  and  whose  marvel- 
lous talents  are  forever  embalmed  in  the  elo- 
quent and  polished  periods  of  Daniel  Webster 


28         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

And  here  came,  too,  that  broad,  intellectual- 
browed  young  graduate,  fresh  from  the  classic 
halls  of  old  Yale,  his  cheeks  still  pale  from 
midnight  study,  and  perhaps  on  whose  sad  face 
was  already  forecast  the  doom  of  martyrdom 
he  so  devotedly  took  upon  himself  for  his 
country — Capt.  Nathan  Hale.  You  know  too 
well  the  sad,  sad  story  :  his  prompt  acceptance 
of  the  ignominious  place  of  spy,  from  which 
all  others  shrank  in  trembling  dread  ;  his  entry 
into  the  British  lines,  his  capture,  his  disgrace- 
ful and  brutal  execution — but  his  sublime 
apotheosis  from  the  solemn  consecration  on  the 
altar  of  his  country's  liberty.  Ah  !  I  say  shame 
upon  us,  that  some  lasting  and  richly  deserved 
memorial  in  brass  or  marble  does  not  salute 
us  in  this  park  this  happy  anniversary,  com- 
memorating his  too  short  but  blameless  life, 
his  cheerful  sacrifice,  and  heroic  death  !  Had 
he  lived  in  early  Greece  and  marched  with  its 
phalanx,  he  would  have  been  made  a  demigod; 
in  Rome  and  of  its  legions,  he  would  have 
survived  in  its  Pantheon ;  in  England  his 
sacred  dust  would  have  been  tenderly  cherished 
beneath  the  holy  fanes  of  Westminister  Ab- 
bey ;  but  in  the  United  States  of  America  the 
precious  fame  of  this  sublime  hero  has  been 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  29 

left   to  wanton,   wicked  neglect    and  studied 
oblivion. 

"It  was  on  the  morning  of  the  i6th  of  Sep- 
tember, i  776,  that  a  detachment  of  the  enemy 
attacked  the  most  advanced  post  and  there 
poured  down  this  very  hill  the  little  detach- 
ment that  had  thrown  up  a  fortification  there, 
to  join  the  gallant  contestants.  It  was  bravely 
defended  by  the  intrepid  Colonel  Knowlton, 
who  determined  that  day  to  brighten  the  be- 
smirched valor  of  his  Connecticut  troops  ; 
and  well  he  did  it.  Then  Washington  let 
loose  the  swift  and  fiery  Leitch  of  Virginia, 
who  struck  the  enemy  on  the  flank.  He 
winced  and  suddenly  reeled ;  the  blow  was 
pressed  and  repeated.  The  two  raging  heroes 
struck  on  either  side,  and  the  flashes  of  their 
guns  formed  a  ring  of  fire  around  their  help- 
less adversaries,  and  their  ranks  were  broken 
and  in  confused  disorder  and  straggling  re- 
treat, cowed  and  whipped,  they  were  sent  whir- 
ling back  to  the  city.  The  sombre  cloud  of 
Long  Island  lifted,  and  there  was  the  blue  of 
heaven  and  sunlight  and  hope  beyond,  and 
Harlem  became  the  synonym  of  joy  and  vic- 
tory. But  what  should  check  this  paan  of  joy, 
this  sunburst  of  hope  ?  why  these  tears  and 
heart-breaks  ? 


30         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

"  Alas  !  the  sturdy  Roundhead  of  Connecti- 
cut and  the  gallant  Cavalier  of  Virginia  went 
down  to  gory  death  together  in  the  valorous 
defence  of  Harlem  heights.  Asked  the  dying 
Knowlton,  "  Did  I  drive  the  enemy  ?  "  and  being 
assured  that  he  did,  closed  his  eyes  in  content- 
ed rest.  Leitch  passed  away  soothed  by  the 
sweet  encomiums  of  Washington  ;  and  here  on 
this  hallowed  ground,  with  the  light  of  victory 
on  their  dead  faces,  did  these  young  heroes  of 
the  North  and  South  go  hand  in  hand  together 
to  that  immortal  dawn  beyond  the  stars.  And 
you,  sirs,  citizens  of  Harlem,  tell  me  what  you 
have  done  in  grateful  recognition  of  the  shin- 
ing valor  of  these  almost  matchless  heroes,  who 
died  that  you  might  live  in  the  celestial  light  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty?  Tell  me,  you  who 
live  here  on  this  holy  ground,  within  view  of 
these  everlasting  hills,  living  witnesses  of  their 
martial  prowess,  what  you  have  done  to  per- 
petuate these  lofty  virtues — above  all  Greek, 
all  Roman  fame  ?  You  wealthy,  patriotic  men 
of  Harlem,  where  is  the  mural  tribute  or 
bronzed  monument  to  mark  the  consecrated 
spot  where  these  young  heroes  poured  out 
their  priceless  blood,  that  liberty  might  be  our 
precious  heritage  forever  ?  Deified  spirits  of 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  3 1 

Hale  and  Knowlton  and  Leitch,  turn  with 
averted  eyes  from  our  shameful  neglect  and 
pitiable  ingratitude  ;  still  bear  with  saintly  pa- 
tience our  leaden  torpor  and  Lethean  sense  of 
duty  !  Forget,  forgive  thy  degenerate  sons, 
though  for  us  thy  sacred  wounds  will  not  be 
the  furrows  in  which  may  ever  grow  the 
laurels  of  victory  !  Forget,  forgive,  you  who 
so  gloriously  died,  leaving  so  fragrant  a 
memory  like  the  breath  of  summer,  full  of 
gladness  and  sunshine,  and  yet  of  sorrows  and 
of  showers,  a  grief  and  a  blessing  in  the  uni- 
versal atmosphere  ! 

"  See  to  it,  citizens  of  Harlem,  that  before 
the  observance  of  our  next  natal  day  the 
bright  sun  weaves  his  golden  beams  into  an 
auriole  about  the  sculptured  brows  of  that  un- 
paralleled trinity  of  heroes — Hale,  Knowlton, 
and  Leitch. 

"  Remember,  of  precious  blood  like  this 
sprang  the  nation.  Knowlton  dreamed  not 
of  the  giant  hills  and  streams  of  Connecticut 
as  he  gave  up  his  young  life,  nor  did  Leitch  of 
the  mountain  passes  and  verdured  valleys  of 
old  Virginia.  It  was  no  longer  Connecticut, 
or  Virginia,  or  Carolina,  or  Massachusetts  ;  it 
was  to  be  and  is  the  United  States  of  Ameri- 


32         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

ca.  It  was  baptized  at  Lexington,  strength- 
ened on  Harlem  heights,  hardened  in  the 
tempests  and  snows  of  Valley  Forge,  con- 
firmed at  Vicksburg  and  Gettysburg,  and  im- 
immortalized  under  the  apple-trees  of  Appo- 
mattox,  and  Richmond  caught  up  the  undying 
echoes  and  thundered  them  back  in  everlast- 
ing amens — the  past  and  present  swelling  the 
diapason  of  a  never-ending  and  indivisible 
Union. 

'  "  Who  can  estimate  the  blessings  the  undy- 
ing heroes  of  both  wars  conferred — that  which 
attained  and  that  which  sustained  Liberty  and 
Union  forever?  Asks  the  eloquent  Bishop 
Doane — '  Can  they  count  the  stars  ?  Can  they 
register  the  pulses  of  the  ocean  that  lash  the 
bold  shores  of  freedom  ?  Will  they  sound  the 
blue  depths  of  the  empyrean  ? '  The  invalu- 
able can  no  more  be  calculated  than  the  infi- 
nite be  measured.  We  are  one  people  :  we 
are  all  Americans  ;  there  is  one  country  for  us 
all,  one  glorious  baldric  blazoned  with  the  stars 
and  stripes,  one  monarch  eagle,  one  broad  and 
blessed  and  perpetual  Union, — a  union  of  our 
homes  and  of  our  hearts,  indomitable,  impreg- 
nable, imperishable.  By  the  holy  memories  of 
the  brave  days  of  old,  by  the  more  tender 


Harlem  Celebration  of 1886.  33 

recollections  of  the  present,  by  the  graves  of 
your  comrades — of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  that  you  surviving  heroes  so  richly 
embroidered,  but  a  month  ago,  with  the  earliest 
and  sweetest  flowers  of  spring, — let  us  cherish 
as  our  choicest  possession  the  principles  of 
that  free  and  happy  Constitution  under  which, 
by  the  blessings  of  God,  and  your  father's 
and  brother's  sufferings,  it  is  our  lot  to  live. 
They  have  been  tried  in  the  storm  and  in 
the  calm,  and  have  borne  us  bravely  through 
both  ;  they  have  brought  down  victory  to  your 
banner  and  raised  you  to  the  height  of  honor, 
the  pattern  and  rallying-point  of  the  world. 
The  question  is  definitely  settled  that  we  can 
never  permit  local  interest  or  private  pre- 
judice or  selfish  consideration  or  emolument 
or  aggrandizement,  to  come  between  our 
hearts  and  burst  the  bond  which  holy  hands, 
with  many  a  tear  and  prayer,  have  knit,  and 
rend  that  glorious  Union  which  they  cemented 
and  made  sacred  with  their  blood.  No  !  let  the 
traitor  perish  in  hot  blood,  whatever  his  name, 
wherever  his  home,  who  dares  with  sacrilegious 
hand  to  separate  what  God  has  joined  together ; 
who  dares  to  touch,  with  purpose  of  dismem- 
berment, one  sacred  stone  of  the  old  Cyclopean 


34         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

arch,  conceived  by  giant  hearts  and  piled  by 
giant  hands,  of  our  incomparable  and  imperish- 
able Union.  The  country  of  the  Union,  the 
country  of  the  Constitution,  the  country  of  the 
Stars  and  Stripes — that  is  our  country  ;  we 
go  for  it  one,  we  go  for  it  all,  one  and  indivisi- 
ble ;  and  I  'd  sooner  tear  my  quivering  heart- 
strings from  their  very  core,  than  see  one  Pleiad 
lost  from  that  all-glorious  constellation. 

"  Yet  we  must  temper  our  proud  exultation 
to-day,  for  two  grave  questions  crowd  forward 
that  may  well  excite  the  serious  apprehension 
of  the  patriot  and  publicist.  One  is  the  pres- 
ent inimical  relations  of  capital  and  labor,  and 
the  other  the  festering  corruption  in  our  mu- 
nicipal government.  I  feel  that  I  would  be  un- 
worthy the  high  and  cherished  honor  you  have 
done  me  in  placing  me  upon  this  rostrum,  if  I 
did  not  call  your  sober  and  undivided  attention 
to  the  impending  dangers  threatening  our  gov- 
ernmental, commercial,  and  social  fabric.  The 
differences  of  labor  and  capital  will  require  the 
exercise  of  the  utmost  sagacity  and  prudence 
to  adjust.  Perhaps  the  unfortunate  differences 
between  employer  and  employe  may  be  settled, 
as  has  been  suggested,  by  regularly  organized 
tribunals  with  absolute  power  to  enforce  their 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  35 

decrees.  Public  opinion  would  sympathize  with 
and  uphold  these  adjudications,  and  they  would 
have  all  the  force  and  sanctity  of  judicial  de- 
termination. But  for  the  laboring  man  to  re- 
sist the  law  and  invade  the  rights  guaranteed 
to  property,  would  be  the  most  fatuous  of 
blunders,  if  not  of  crimes,  and  would  stub- 
bornly antagonize  conservative  and  righteous 
public  opinion,  as  well  as  merit  the  penalties 
of  violated  law.  On  the  other  side,  capital 
should  be  open-handed,  tolerant,  and  just.  It 
is  after  all  but  the  tangible  result  of  labor,  and 
should  be  as  free  in  its  fair  and  proper  distribu- 
tion and  compensation,  as  it  was  earnest  and 
industrious  in  its  accumulation.  The  present 
danger  is  happily  diminished  by  the  indignant 
repudiation  of  the  American  laborer  of  all 
foreign  and  pernicious  methods  of  coercive 
adjustment.  He  does  not  tolerate  desolating 
anarchism,  or  that  maniacal  heresy,  devastating 
socialism.  His  vote  has  greater  force  than  the 
destructive  dynamite,  and  the  soft  blaze  on  the 
hearthstone  at  home,  that  dances  on  the  faces 
of  wife  and  children,  has  more  comfort  and 
hope  than  the  lurid  torch  of  the  incendiary,  or 
the  flash  of  the  assassin's  dagger.  Legislatures 
should  be  more  circumspect  and  exercise  a  far 


36         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

more  rigid  scrutiny  in  the  granting  of  opulent, 
and  what  may  become  oppressive  franchises. 
Vast  accumulation  of  wealth  becomes  danger- 
ous and  insidious  to  the  fullest  enjoyment  of 
human  rights,  and  can  easily  be  turned  to  the 
infliction  of  the  most  galling  tyranny.  -Wealth 
seeks  wealth,  and  starting  like  the  sharp  point 
of  an  inverted  cone,  it  goes  on  absorbing  and 
adding  to  itself  until  it  grows  beyond  measure- 
ment. Let  the  mutual  and  dependent  inter- 
ests of  labor  and  capital  go  hand  in  hand  to 
such  peaceful  tribunals  as  the  highest  sagacity 
and  purest  conservatism  can  create,  and  sub- 
mit to  and  abide  by  and  in  harmonious  obedi- 
ence to  the  decree  promulgated. 

"  I  need  only  detain  you  with  a  word  about 
our  vast  and  marvellous  prosperity  which  has 
perhaps  become  to  us  a  snare.  It  has  been 
wisely  said  on  an  occasion  like  this,  by  the 
eminent  publicist  and  lawyer  of  Philadelphia, 
George  W.  Biddle  :  We  may  well  be  blinded  by 
self-love  in  the  contemplation  of  our  stupendous 
and  material  progress  into  shortcomings  in 
moral  and  political  excellence.  The  appalling 
vice  of  corruption  stalks  unblushingly  through 
the  land.  Our  municipal  corporations  have 
become  by-words  of  venality  ;  party  intrigues 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  3  7 

and  party  rancor  encourage  it,  and  are  in  turns 
aggravated  by  it.  The  public  treasury  becomes 
the  great  object  of  attraction,  and  others  in 
places  of  private  trust  become  contaminated, 
and  gigantic  frauds  derange  and  prostrate  our 
whole  commercial  machinery.  We  are  given 
too  much  to  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  which 
seems  to  crowd  out  better  and  purer  aspira- 
tions, and  it  results  in  the  citizen's  neglect  of 
his  grandest  duty.  If  a  man's  eye  is  only  fixed 
on  the  needful,  he  may  and  will  infallibly  neg- 
lect the  institutions  which  have  helped  him  to 
what  he  is  ;  if  all  absorbed  he  shall  find  them 
not  only  no  longer  what  they  once  were,  but 
the  mere  hollow  shell  of  a  former  reality. 
The  citizens  of  a  free  country  have  some- 
thing to  do  beyond  the  mere  annual  deposit 
of  a  vote  at  the  polling  place.  The  price 
of  all  we  have  is  not  to  be  paid  by  the 
expenditure  of  about  three  minutes  of  time  in 
one  of  the  365  days  of  the  year.  Unless  we 
compare,  think,  discuss,  contrast,  all  of  which 
.go  to 'make  up  the  apparent  final  act  in  the  se- 
lection of  a  public  man  to  carry  out  a  public 
measure  (and  all  this  requires  time),  the  privi- 
lege accorded  to  us,  to  make  the  choice  at  last, 
had  better  be  withheld  and  kept  in  the  hands 


38         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

of  those  who  will  certainly  give  the  time  to  its 
exercise,  and  will  exercise  it  to  their  own  ad- 
vantage. How  does  the  large  body  of  intelli- 
gent men  act  around  us  in  these  respects  ?  Is 
it  the  discharge  by  them  of  a  great  political 
duty,  to  which  they  give  the  proper  time  and 
thought,  or  is  it,  if  discharged  at  all,  the  most 
perfunctory  act,  not  half  so  important  in  their 
eyes,  certainly  not  taking  half  the  time  of  hav- 
ing their  boots  blacked  or  adjusting  a  necktie, 
and  yet  the  results  may  be,  nay  always  are, 
vital  to  the  prosperity,  the  happiness,  perhaps 
the  stability  of  the  country,  and  surely  have 
brought  about  many  instances  of  waste,  plun- 
der of  public  money,  bribery,  and  the  demora- 
lization that  has  met  us  within  the  past  year. 

"  I  cannot  forbear,  fellow-citizens,  in  this  con- 
nection to  acknowledge  the  debt  of  obligation 
we  owe  the  press  of  this  city  for  its  fearless  ex- 
posures of  corruption  and  fraud.  Its  intrepid 
vigilance,  untiring  industry  in  ferreting  out 
corruption  in  high  place,  seeking  it  in  depart- 
ments and  bureaux,  penetrating  the  darkness 
and  dragging  to  light  fraud,  imbecility,  and  in- 
competency,  guarantees  to  the  citizen  a  pure, 
wholesome,  and  economical  government.  The 
people  as  a  whole  are  uncorrupted,  and  when 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  39 

they  bestir  themselves  and  march  on  to  exe- 
cution of  high  resolves,  in  vain  shall  the  at- 
tempt be  made  to  stop  them  in  their  progress. 
Let  us  resolve  that  this  beautiful  Harlem  with 
its  cherished  recollections,  and  now  also  the 
custodian  of  the  sacred  ashes  of  Grant,  shall 
keep  pace  in  moral  excellence  and  political 
virtue  with  its  material  prosperity. 

"  Indulge  me  with  one  word  more  upon  a 
subject  suggested  to  me,  and  my  task  is  done. 
Let  these  national  anniversaries  become  more 
hallowed  as  being  days  of  forgiveness  and 
kindness  to  those  who  have  so  deeply  injured 
our  beloved  country  and  ourselves.  I  glory  in 
the  kindly  courtesies  that  you  intrepid  soldiers 
of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  are  inter- 
changing with  your  brothers  of  the  South  to- 
day. To  use  the  glowing  language  of  the  elo- 
quent prelate  already  mentioned,  we  must 
remember  that  we  have  common  duties  to  per- 
form, a  common  trust  for  humankind  to  exe- 
cute, a  common  source  from  which  our  hearts 
fill  their  cisterns  with  the  same  red  blood  ;  a 
common  language  which  our  mothers'  voices 
first  made  familiar  to  our  ears  in  lullabies,  in 
which  we  wooed  and  won  our  wives,  in  which 
our  children  lisped  and  prattled  nature's  love- 


4O         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

liest  melodies  to  all  our  hearts  ;  a  common 
stock  of  learning  and  of  letters.  Not  that  your 
heroic  efforts  and  acts,  nor  those  of  your  asso- 
ciates, should  be  forgotten  ;  not  that  your  trials 
and  struggles  and  sacrifices  will  ever  cease  to 
be  our  boast ;  not  that  the  thrilling  memories 
of  the  Peninsula,  Fredericksburg,  Gettysburg, 
Richmond,  and  the  march  to  the  sea  shall  ever 
grow  pale ;  but  things  that  are  done  are  fin- 
ished ;  by-gones  should  be  by-gones  ;  a  fight 
fought  through  is  done  ;  for  a  brave  man,  says 
Cowper,  bears  no  malice,  but  forgets  in  peace 
the  injuries  of  war. 

"  The  only  justifiable  end  of  war  is  peace 
-  life  was  made  for  love  —  America  must 
be  the  fugleman  of  freedom,  the  standard- 
bearer  of  free  government.  The  great  gift 
of  God  is  peace.  The  angels  sang  it  when 
they  brought  from  heaven  the  welcome  mes- 
sage of  a  Saviour  born — '  Glory  be  to  God  on 
high,  and  on  earth  peace.'  Peace  is  a  sacred 
thing  ;  it  is  the  halcyon  weather  of  the  heart, 
where  all  the  virtues  brood  and  all  the  chari- 
ties are  teeming  with  a  warmer  and  more  genial 
life.  '  It  is  heard  in  the  song  of  the  reaper 
and  in  the  tinkling  of  the  shepherd's  bell.' 

"  The  Sabbath  morning  of  creation  was  not 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  41 

serener  in  its  solemn  hush,  nor  Plato's  loveli- 
est dream,  the  music  of  the  spheres,  more  ex- 
quisite in  its  harmony ;  and  thank  God,  says 
Dr.  Chapin  in  one  of  his  eloquent  bursts,  its 
holy  presence  is  about  us  to-day,  from  the 
great  lakes  to  the  heaving  gulf — from  the  Pa- 
cific to  the  Atlantic  coast.  Our  eagles'  screams 
are  heard  from  crag  to  crag,  from  the  lone 
cliffs  of  Charlotte's  Island  to  the  hoarse  waters 
of  Cape  Sable.  From  the  cove  where  the 
Nantucket  fisherman  spreads  his  pennon  to 
the  wind,  travel  southward  more  than  sixty  of 
the  degrees  that  check  his  radiant  path  with 
imaginary  lines  still  beaming  upon  our  coun- 
try, and  the  rest  and  stillness  of  the  starry 
night  broods  over  our  quiet  dwellings,  when 
the  tired  emigrant  lays  down  his  axe  as  the 
purple  day  fades  from  the  pathless  woods. 

" '  O,  God,  look  down   upon  the  land  which  thou  hast 

loved  so  well, 
And  grant  that  in  unbroken  truth  her  children  still  may 

dwell, 
Nor  while  the  grass  grows  on  the  hill  and  streams  flow 

through  the  vale, 
Shall  they  forget  their  fathers'  faith,  nor  in  their  covenants 

fail. 

God  keep  the  fairest,  noblest  land,  that  lies  beneath  the  sun, 
Our  country,  our  whole  country,  and  our  country  every 

one.' 


42         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

"And  finally,  fellow-citizens,  do  you  remem- 
ber that  disastrous  siege  in  India,  and  the  fam- 
ishing and  dismayed  garrison  of  Lucknow, 
awaiting  and  praying  for  succor  and  help,  and 
striving  with  gaunt  hunger  on  the  one  side, 
and  the  fierce  menaces  and  attacks  of  the 
bloody  and  relentless  Sepoys  on  the  other, 
and  amidst  the  ghastly  and  the  weird  despair 
that  surrounded  them,  the  poor  Scotch  girl, 
rising  from  her  fevered  pallet  in  the  hospital, 
and  with  streaming  hair  and  distended  eyes, 
and  with  hands  to  her  ear,  rushing  wildly  to 
the  battlements  and  shrieking  in  thrilling  tones 
to  the  sick  and  weary  soldiers  :  '  They  are 
coming.  I  hear  the  slogan  of  the  Macgregor. 
Do  ye  nay  hear  it,  men  ?  '  And  they  wearily 
answered  in  hopeless  despair  and  helpless 
sympathy  :  '  Poor  girl,  Jessie,  Jessie  Brown, 
this  is  delirium,  the  wild  frolic  of  fever.  None' 
can  succor  us  but  God.  No  help  is  left ;  let 
us  die  like  men.'  And  she  quickly  turned  with 
eager  eye  and  heaving  bosom,  with  her  lips 
wreathed  in  impatient  smiles  and  cried  in 
thrilling  tones  :  '  Are  ye  deaf,  men  ;  do  ye  nay 
hear  it  ?  There  !  there  !  hear  !  hear  !  I  hear 
it  again  ;  it  is  afar  off.  The  Campbells — the 
Campbells  are  coming."  And  in  an  hour  the 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  43 

joyous  and  triumphant  bag-pipes  burst  upon 
their  expectant  ears,  and  the  banner  of  old 
England  floated  safely  over  their  heads.  So  I 
hear  now  in  the  distance  the  glad  notes  of  the 
coming  jubilee,  rising  from  the  gasping  hearts 
of  millions.  Soon  will  you  see  a  still  higher, 
purer  civilization  at  the  gates  of  the  new  citadel, 
and  the  stars  and  stripes  floating  proudly,  its 
blessed  folds  guaranteeing  peace  and  union 
and  liberty  ever  and  forever ! " 

When  Mr.  Buck  had  concluded,  the  people 
present  joined  in  singing  the  doxology,  and 
these  exercises  closed. 

At  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  a  banquet 
was  served  at  Brady's  Hall,  West  I25th  Street, 
at  which  about  three  hundred  persons  were 
present.  Hon.  Jordan  L.  Mott  presided,  and 
Mr.  T.  E.  D.  Power  acted  as  master  of  cere- 
monies. Patriotic  toasts  were  responded  to 
by  Hon.  Randolph  B.  Martine,  District  Attor- 
ney, Judge  Henry  P.  McGown,  Capt.  A.  M. 
Underbill,  Charles  W.  Dayton,  Hon.  Robt. 
B.  Nooney,  Hon.  Jas.  T.  Van  Rennselaer,  and 
T.  M.  Seaver.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
and  entertaining  features  of  the  occasion  was 
a  speech  by  General  Abram  Dally,  a  veteran  of 
the  war  of  1812,  dressed  in  Continental  uni- 


44         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

form,  who,  being  again  called  upon,  sang  the 
song,  "  When  this  old  hat  was  new,"  so  vigor- 
ously and  lustily  as  to  justify  the  hope  and 
belief  that  the  General  would  live  to  celebrate 
many  other  like  days. 

Venerable  Captain  Ben.  Richardson,  who 
had  loaned  Washington's  carriage  for  the  pa- 
rade also  spoke  and  made  the  walls  ring  with 
the  fervor  of  his  patriotism. 

An  organization  representing  the  i  ;th  N.  Y. 
Veteran  Volunteers,  the  first  veteran  organ- 
ization in  the  United  States  service,  was  en- 
camped during  the  day,  on  the  east  lawn  of 
Mount  Morris  Park.  The  following  are  the 
names  of  its  officers  : 


T.  F.  Shehan,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  Commanding. 

J.  van  Deursen,  Major. 

Edward  R.  Duffy,  M.  D.,  Surgeon. 

F.  W.  Ritschy,  Quartermaster. 

P.  Schaller,  Adjutant. 

F.  L.  Schaefer,  Captain. 
John  Miller,  Captain. 

G.  W.  Martin,  ist  Lieutenant. 
John  Crimmins,  ist  Lieutenant. 
Wm.  Fox,  2d  Lieutenant. 

Jos.  Hatch,  2d  Lieutenant. 

R.  B.  Moss,  Brigadier-General  and  Chief  of  Honorary 
Staff. 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  45 

At  sunset  a  national  salute  was  fired  from 
the  walls  of  Morningside  Park,  where  a  grand 
instrumental  concert  was  given,  and  at  eight 
o'clock  a  superb  display  of  fireworks  took 
place,  attended  by  many  thousands  of  people 
from  New  York  and  surrounding  cities,  of 
which  the  following  is  a  synopsis  : 

SIGNAL  MAROON,  exploding  at  a  great  altitude  with 
tremendous  report. 

ILLUMINATION  OF  THE  GROUNDS,  with  six  Carmine, 
Emerald,  and  Diamond  Lights,  which  will  repeatedly 
change  color,  finally  blending  and  giving  a  charming  effect. 

ASCENT  OF  A  MONSTER  BALLOON,  with  very  powerful 
Magnesium  Light  of  changeable  colors. 

BATTERIES  OF  ROMAN  CANDLES,  discharging  in  every 
direction  myriads  of  Fiery  Globules  of  every  hue. 

THE  FOREST  OF  FIRE,  pronounced  by  the  press  and 
public  one  of  the  finest  Pyrotechnical  effects  ever  wit- 
nessed. 

FLIGHT  OF  ROCKETS. — Subject,  combination  of  colors. 

DISPLAY  OF  PAIN'S  2  LB.  CONGREVE  ROCKET,  ad- 
mitted to  be  the  largest  and  by  far  the  best  Rocket  fired. 

DEVICE — THE  SAXON  CROSS,  in  five  mutations. 

DISPLAY  OF  SHELLS,  24  inches  circumference,  com- 
prising Brilliant  Serpents,  Purple  and  Amber,  Aerial 
Wheat  Sheaves,  Pansies  and  Primroses,  Variegated  Bou- 
quet, Liquid  Gems,  Gfeen  and  White,  Silver  Serpents, 
Olive  Green. 

SHELL  FORMING  A  WHEAT  SHEAF. 

NEW  ROCKETS,  The  Transit  of  Venus,  exceedingly 
beautiful. 


46         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

DEVICE — BARNUM'S  LATEST  IMPORTATION,  "  ALICE," 
will  cross  and  recross  the  grounds  with  life-like  action  of 
limbs,  causing  roars  of  laughter. 

VOLLEY  OF  SHELLS,  drooping  stars. 

GREAT  SHELL  OF  ASTEROIDS. 

DISCHARGE  OF  CRACKER  MINES  AND  FIERY  WHIRL- 
WINDS. 

PAIN'S  NEWLY  INVENTED  SEXTUPLUS  ROCKETS  (1884 
novelty) — Each  rocket,  on  attaining  its  altitude,  dis- 
charges five  other  perfect  rockets.  A  new  departure 
in  pyrotechnics. 

MAGNESIUM  SHELLS  of  intense  brilliancy. 

THE  SHELL  OF  SHELLS — Indian  Jugglery. 

DEVICE — THE  STAR-SPANGLED  BANNER. 

THE  PLEIADS  or  Seven  Floating  Stars  thrown  from 
each  rocket. 

LARGE  SHELL,  forming  the  Aurora  Borealis. 

PAIN'S  AERIAL  WONDERS. 

CELESTIAL  STARS  in  Rayonet  Fires,  Marooned. 

DISPLAY  OF  ROCKETS.  Introducing  Variegated  Gems, 
Silver  Rain,  Meteors,  Serpents,  Bright  Stars,  Golden 
Cloud,  Peacock's  Plumes. 

BOUQUET  OF  LABURNUM  BLOSSOM,  i  Shell,  produced 
by  a  shell  thirty  inches  in  circumference. 

DEVICE  —  GIRANDOLE  WHEELS,  discharging  Rockets, 
Roman  Candles,  Fanfaronades,  etc. 

DISPLAY  OF  CONGREVE  ROCKETS,  with  Peacock  Plumes. 

SILVER  CLOUD,  studded  with  Sapphires. 

DEVICE — THREE  REVOLVING  SUNS.  Cutting  a  Spray 
of  Fire  150  feet  in  circumference. 

ASCENT  OF  ILLUMINATED  TOURBILLIONS. 

METEORIC  ROCKETS,  with  Silver  and  Golden  Rain. 

DISPLAY  OF   SHELLS  (30    inches  in  circumference), 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  47 

comprising  Pearl  Streamers,  Golden  Pink,  Carmine  and 
Emerald,  Mauve  and  Amber,  Blue  and  Yellow,  Puce  and 
Silver,  Red  and  Green,  Light  Blue  and  Green,  Blue  and 
Silver,  Chocolate  and  Pink. 

EXPLOSION  OF  SINBAD'S  JEWEL  CAVE. 

FIERY  WHIRLWINDS. 

DEVICE — THE  FIREWORK  CHROMOTROPE. 

FLIGHT  OF  ROCKETS,  Laburnum  Blossom. 

PAIN'S  FIERY  WAGGLERS  (1884  novelty). 

THE  PYROTECHNICAL  HARLEQUINADE. 

FLIGHT  OF  PEARL  STREAMERS. 

SIMULTANEOUS  VOLCANIC  ERUPTIONS. 

PAIN'S  MAMMOTH  SPREADERS. 

DISPLAY  OF  ROCKETS  with  Brilliant  Stars. 

JEWEL  CLOUD. 

DISPLAY  OF  SHELLS,  36  inches  circumference. 

DEVICE — THE  FALLS  OF  NIAGARA,  size  100  x  50  feet. 

DISPLAY  OF  SHELLS,  30  inches  circumference. 

SALVO  OF  RAYONET  TOURBILLIONS. 

DISPLAY  OF  PAIN'S  MAMMOTH  50  INCH  Bombs,  by  far 
the  largest  shells  ever  fired  by  any  Pyrotechnist  in  the 
World. 

FINAL  DEVICE  consisting  of  Colossal  Fine  Portraits 
of  Washington,  Lincoln,  and  Grant,  with  appropriate 
motto  ;  the  whole  surrounded  with  a  glory  of  Brilliant 
Fires,  80  x  30  feet. 

GRAND  BOUQUET  OF  1,000  LARGE  Colored  Rockets. 


DEVICE-GOOD-NIGHT.      "GOD  BLESS  HARLEM!" 


48         The  Independence  Day  Association. 

The  success  of  the  day,  from  dawn  until  the 
last  rocket  had  exploded,  was  applauded  and 
conceded,  not  only  by  our  neighbors,  but 
throughout  the  municipality,  and  it  is  grati- 
fying to  note  that  from  many  parts  of  the 
United  States  came  messages  congratulating 
the  people  of  Harlem  upon  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  commemorative  display  they  had 
inaugurated. 

The  list  of  more  than  six  hundred  contribu- 
tors hereto  appended,  and  the  report  of  the 
Treasurer,  showing  the  total  collections  to 
have  been  $5,377-75,  total  expenditures, 
$3,729.13,  leaving  a  balance  in  his  hands  of 
$1,648.62,  are  an  assurance  that  the  old-time 
Fourth  of  July  is  not  a  thing  of  the  past,  but 
should  and  can  be  perpetuated. 

In  presenting  this  chronicle,  the  Indepen- 
dence Day  Association  of  Harlem  confidently 
assumes  that  the  example  set  in  1886  will  bear 
such  fruit  as  that  hereafter  with  us,  with  our 
children,  and  with  their  posterity,  no  year  shall 
pass  while  we  remain  a  free  country,  that  shall 
not  see  this  greatest,  and  dearest,  and  best  of 
all  our  national  days,  celebrated  joyously  and 
with  fiery  ardor,  just  as  it  was  on  that  Fourth 
of  July,  1776,  when  the  old  Liberty  Bell  clanged 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886.  49 

its  announcement  to  the  world  that  these  were 
free  and  independent  States. 

Published  by  order  of  the  Association. 

JAMES  H.  BOGART, 

Secretary. 

New  York,  April  25,  1887. 


50         The  Independence  Day  Association. 


LIST    OF    SUBSCRIBERS    TO   INDEPENDENCE 
DAY  ASSOCIATION  OF  HARLEM,  1886. 


Isaac  Anderson 
Thomas  Allison 
Jos.  Armitage 
W.  P.  Atkin 

D.  P.  Arnold 
Allen  &  Rees 
J.  B.  Allyn 
Mr.  Arnold 
Mr.  Angevine 
Geo.  W.  Arnold 
John  Allen 

K.  Alexander 
Wm.  P.  Austin 
Jno.  C.  Alten 
J.  D.  Archbold 
American  Express  Co. 
Mr.  Adams 
W.  H.  Arnott 
W.  C.  Andrews 

E.  J.  Atkinson 
M.  Altman 
Chas.  D.  Allaire 
John  Black 

H.  C.  Blye 
T.  E.  Baker 


Jas.  H.  Bogart 
Mr.  Brancard 
Mr.  Brown 
J.  Butler 
H.  Blesson 
E.  Bennett 
Jno.  W.  Bassett 
H.  Bendix 
H.  O.  Bernard 
Jno.  Brady 
W.  H.  Bellamy 
A.  N.  Brockway 
S.  H.  Bailey 
M.  F.  Boswell 
N.  L.  Bush 
E.  J.  Burrall 
J.  H.  Burden 
Frank  E.  Bliss 
Est.  S.  Brush 
Geo.  B.  Brown 
H.  R.  Beekman 
W.  Baldwin 
G.  W.  Birdsall 
Matthew  Baird 
Jerome  Buck 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886. 


Jno.  A.  Bartz 
Geo.  E.  Babcock 
Thos.  L.  Botts 
T.  B.  Banninger 
C.  Boese 
Brandes  Bros. 

F.  Blaeser 
Geo.  R.  Bevans 
W.  G.  Brady 

P.  A.  Bernard 

G.  A.  Buckingham 
R.  A.  Brown 

E.  M.  Bloomer 
G.  T.  Bartholemew 
T.  Barrigan 
H.  W.  Burfiend 
Jas.  B.  Black 
H.  H.  Brown 
S.  M.  Brown 
G.  H.  Burford 
Chas.  Batchelor 
J.  E.  Barton 
Wm.  T.  Birdsall 
Chas.  Crary 
S.  T.  Cannon 
Wm.  Cochrane 
Nelson  Crawford 
Harry  Cooke 
Justus  Cooke 
J.  S.  Conover 
Croft  Bros. 
J.  M.  Curry 
H.  Cohen 


A,  Cobb 
W.  F.  Croft 

W.  H.  Caldwell 
H.  V.  Crawford 
Jas.  A.  Cryan 
Adolf  Czaki 
Saml.  Cleland 
J.  H.  Cochnauer 
C.  C.  Cotter 
J.  W.  Camp 
E.  F.  Corey 
Cosy  Club 
W.  L.  Chester 

C.  Crolius 

D.  N.  Carvalho 
Geo.  A.  Cole 
Henry  Cote 

B.  G.  Clark 
J.  A.  Colvin 

R.  Carman  Combes 
T.  B.  Chase 
Fredk.  Chase 
D.  L.  Cornell 
Richard  Croker 
H.  C.  Calkins 
T.  E.  Crimmins 
Chase,  Talbot,  &  Co. 
P.  F.  Curray 
J.  M.  Coman 
J.  S.  Carvalho 
Cattle  Company 
Carter,  Sloan,  &  Co. 
R.  M.  Cugle 


52         The  Independence  Day  Association. 


Leroy  B.  Crane 
Chas.  H.  Cooper 
Daniel  Connor 
M.  E.  Crasto  &  Son 
W.  E.  Crandall 
W.  H.  Corsa 
Jos.  Crowell 
W.  F.  Carleton. 
W.  H.  O'Dwyer 
Granville  F.  Dailey 
Jos.  M.  Deveau 
W.  A.  Duncan 
W.  Duing 
H.  Denbert 
N.  Dewes 
A.  Duryee 
Sol.  Denzer 
Jno.  A.  Deady 
A.  G.  Dickinson 
Jno.  C.  Devin 
S.  S.  Doty 
J.  Dobbins 
J.  M.  Dubois 
J.  H.  Demarest 
M.  L.  Dobbelaar 
N.  Dullmeyer 
Wm.  Dihm 
E.  A.  Durant,  Jr. 
J.  W.  Dunning 
Jno.  B.  Dutcher 

E.  O.  Dudley 
D.  DeNoyes 

F.  J.  Dupignac 


J.  A.  Deering 
W.  L.  Darling 
J.  W.  Dougan 
Jas.  Doran 
Mr.  Davis 

B.  J.  Doane 
Mr.  Darragh 
E.  Drescher 
V.  M.  Davis 

W.  A.  Dayton,  M.D. 
Chas.  W.  Dayton 
W.  H.  DeGraaf 
M.  J.  Dixon 
Henry  A.  Dows 
George  Ehret 

C.  W.  H.  Elting 
M.  S.  Euen 
Jacob  Ebling 
Emmons  &  Billing 
E.  Ellis 

Eighth  Av.  R.  R.  Co. 
John  A.  Eagleson 
Fred.  Eberlin 
J.  M.  F.  Egan 
R.  T.  B.  Easton 

D.  W.  Erstine 
Jno.  Eagan 

P.  F.  Ferrigan 
Geo.  Fernschild 
Ashbel  P.  Fitch 
P.  Farley 
J.  P.  Fellows 
Fletcher  Bros. 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886. 


53 


J.  Farrell 
G.  E.  Fennell 
M.  Fischer 
R.  Fredenberg 
Ed.  Fridenberg 
J.  H.  Franklin 
F.  Fraenkle 
Jno.  Frick 
J.  O.  Farrington 
J.  Fettkotter 
Fowler  Bros. 
J.  N.  Foley 
Lawson  N.  Fuller 
F.  S.  Fassett 
Peter  Forrester 
Jos.  P.  Fallen 
A.  B.  Fenner 
Fiston  &  Deery 
W.  B.  Finnegan 

E.  Fiston 

R.  P.  Flower 
C.  F.  Freedman 
J.  E.  Fairchild 
J.  R.  Fischbeck 
J.  J.  Fitzpatrick 
J.  A.  P.  Glore 
H.  Gruhm 
Gumpeil  &  Co. 
Goodyear  Rubber  Co. 

F.  C.  Gleason 
Griffith  &  Co. 
Elias  Goodman 
A.  M.  Gerlach 


M.  Greenspecht 

C.  H.  Green 

R.  J.  Godwin 

A.  W.  Godwin 

Chas.  Grube 

Wm.  S.  Gray 

J.  C.  Gallagher 

Saml.  Goodman 

Chester  Griswold 

Jacob  Groy 

Jas.  E.  Graybill 

F.  Gearty 

Mr.  Goetz 

J.  C.  Gehegan 

P.  F.  Gargan 

C.  W.  Glaser 

T.  Gorman 

John  Guiran 

Wm.  M.  Gillespie 

Harlem  Democratic  Club 

R.  F.  Hill 

C.  O.  Hubbell 

R,  A.  Hevenor 

E.  A.  Houghton 

Z.  J.  Halpin 

Mr.  Hildebrant 

J.  A.  Hagmayer 

J.  Hagmayer 

J.  D.  Henderson 

Wm.  H.  Horn 

Jos.  Hart 

Hamilton  Higgins 

J.  M.  Horton 


54         The  Independence  Day  Association. 


Danl.  P.  Hays 
S.  H.  Kurd 
J.  H.  Hume 
Jno.  Hart 

0.  W.  Hervey 
T.  F.  Hines 

R.  A.  Hollister 
Fred.  Hagadorn 
J.  C.  Hasbrouck 

E.  Honeywell 

R.  V.  Harnett  [Co. 

Harlem  &  West.Co.Clothing 

1.  A.  Hopper 
Wm.  Harmes 
C.  Hartmann 

F.  R.  Houghton 

G.  Hauck 
T.  Holmes 
W.  T.  Hickey 
Jno.  H.  Haar 

C.  H.  Holder 
J.  L.  N.  Hunt 
L.  F.  Hallen 
Harlem  Bowling  Club 
S.  O.  Howe 

D.  P.  Ingraham 
S.  Jaske 

Wm.  S.  Jones 
Wm.  P.  Kelly 
Thos.  Kearns 
J.  C.  Kimme 
H.  Kahn 
J.  Kraus 


J.  A.  Knoops 
P.  J.  Kelly 
Wm.  Knower 
Ketcham  &  Moffatt 
J.  B.  Kaiser 
M.  Kallaher 
J.  A.  Koones 
Peter  Koch 
James  King,  Jr. 
C.  H.  Kendrick 
T.  C.  Kimball 
Thos.  Kelly 
Ed.  Kendrick 
Kerr  &  Batlin 
Jno.  Cavanagh 
W.  H.  Kuhn. 
Berrian  Keyser 
Alf.  Kehoe 
W.  H.  Liscomb 
Wm.  Lockwood 
J.  Ludlow 
J.  C.  Lyons 
J.  F.  Land 
Mrs.  Lichtenstein 
W.  B.  Leigh 
Leopold  Levy 
Frank  Lee 
Levy  &  Meyer 
P.  Loughran 
S.  Lichtenstein 
M.  Lewin 
J.  Lindner 
John  Lowry 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886. 


55 


D.  H.  Llewellyn 
J.  D.  Lynch 
A.  F.  Lansing 
J.  R.  Lawrence 
G.  K.  Lansing 

D.  Lesperance 
F.  R.  Lovell 

E.  C.  Leseur 
Thos.  McKellar 
T.  N.  Motley 
H.  P.  McGown 
J.  C.  Munzinger 
Mrs.  E.  A.  McGown 
J.  McLoughlin 

C.  S.  Mitchell 
P.  M.  Millspaugh 
J.  Moench 
W.  McKown 
C.  Mierrisch 
J,  McCue 
P.  H.  Moss 
J.  McCaffrey 
J.  Murphy 
R.  McGinness 
VVm.  Jay  Murphy 
Mount  Morris  Club 
M.  H.  Moses  &  Co. 
J.  R.  Mitchell 
C.  B.  Morris 
David  Mitchell 
W.  A.  Martin 
Peter  Miller,  Jr. 
Alex.  McGarren 


Chas.  N.  Morgan 

Wm.  D.  May 

H.  H.  Moye  &  Co. 

C.  A.  Marsh 
Mullen  Bros. 

J.  H.  McCarthy 
G.  P.  H.  McVay 
Wm.  L.  Milligan 
J.  Meyer 

D.  J.  McAllister 
D.  W.  McWilliams 

B.  B.  Mitchell 
David  Miller 
R.  B.  Marline 
Jordan  L.  Mott 
M.  L.  B.  Martin 
H.  J.  Mahr 

C.  E.  Merritt 

Met.  Telephone  Co. 

P.  Markly 

G.  Merdt 

T.  J.  Molloy 

J.  Morrison 

S.  L.  Meyer 

S.  Marx 

L.  F.  Mazzetti 

H.  J.  Morin 

A.  Martin 

H.  H.  Martin 
W.  McCormick 
Jas.  Morey 
Jas.  McCusker 

B.  McArdle 


56         The  Independence  Day  Association. 


Jos.  Mulligan 
Chas.  Meyer 
F.  J.  Mott 
Wm.  Moores 
Henry  Munson 

F.  McKenna 
Geo.  Meade 
J.  Metzger 
Jas.  Norris 
Newkirk  &  Green 
Chas.  H.  Newman 
H.  E.  Neucomb 

J.  H.  Newman 
National  Express  Co. 
T.  H.  Newman 

G.  A.  J.  Norman 
C.  Nooney 

E.  Aug.  Neresheimer 
Geo.  Nicolai 
Hugh  Nesbit 
John  O'Neill 
Wm.  O'Donnell 
Oswald  Ottendorfer 
Frank  E.  Owen 
E.  C.  Oppenheim 
W.  B.  Ogden 
Jno.  O'Leary 
J.  J.  O'Meara 
Jas.  P.  Paulding 
Rev.  J.  W.  Powers 
J.  Palmer  &  Co. 
Jas.  D.  Platt 
David  F.  Porter 


E.  Phillips 
J.  Rausch 
W.  H.  Pierce 

F.  M.  Patrick 
J.  H.  Patterson 
Wheeler  Powell 
Peace  &  Spence 

E.  S.  Phillips 
C.  H.  Patrick 
H.  T.  Peirce 
C.  P.  Peirce 

F.  A.  Pollard 
E.  B.  Parsons 
C.  A.  Pool 

L.  M.  Palmer 
Chas.  Place 
A.  J.  Post 
T.  E.  D.  Power 
S.  R.  Pinckney 
Jas.  Pollack 
E.  S.  Peters 
J.  R.  Palmenberg 
W.  Phillips 
Abraham  Piser 
Park  &  Tilford 
Wm.  Peterkin 
Jno.  Peters 
Geo.  E.  Parker 
J.  F.  Powers 
C.  H.  Phillips 
John  J.  Quinn 
J.J.Ryan 
David  Rutsky 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886. 


57 


M.  E.  Rutsky 

W.  Rosevelt 

H.  E.  Rhoades 

J.  Rausch 

M.  J.  Ritterman  &  Co. 

Thos.  Rigney  &  Co. 

W.  S.  Rockwell 

W.  L.  Rathbun 

F.  W.  Rennell 

Wm.  H.  Ross 

Randolph  &  Delaverne 

Wm.  C.  Reddy 

A.  Rohkohl 

Ramson  &  Wells 

A.  Rasines 

R.  W.  Ridley 

E.  L.  Ridgeway 

F.  H.  Ruhe 
W.  H.  Rolston 
Wm.  Ridley 
Jacob  Ruppert 
Geo.  Ringler 

H.  A.  Ritterbush 
T.  J.  Robinson 
C.  E.  Randrup 
T.  E.  Rice 
Ira  B.  Read 
J.  T.  Rosenheimer 
J.  Reichenstein 
Delos  Reynolds 
C.  C.  Repper 
Wm.  Rhodes 
Jas.  Riley 


John  Ross 

Jas.  A.  Reilly 

F.  Rogers 

E.  P.  Steers 

M.  Strausky 

A.  A.  Stein 

H.  L.  Slote 

H.  A.  Searle 

Jno.  J.  Sperry 

L.  B.  Smith 

W.  Sturm 

Squier  Bros. 

J.  Smith 

E.  Smith 

C.  Schunemann 

H.  Seebeck 

E.  W.  Sackett 

A.  G.  Shipman 

Theo.  Spear 

Sackett,  Wilhelms,  &  Betzy 

L.  P.  Sondheim 

P.  Sondheim 

Arnold  Sampler 

M.  Stachelberg 

Jas.  M.  Smith 

Isidor  Strauss 

J.  Stieglich 

W.  E.  Story 

Henry  Smith 

A.  E.  Scott 

M.  Sullivan 

Eug.  Sweeny 

H.  Sturcke 


58         The  Independence  Day  Association. 


J.  H.  Schroeder 

G.  A.  Spalding 

Jno.  Simpson 

P.  Stroebel 

S.  F.  Sniffen 

Jas.  J.  Sullivan 

Second  Ave.  R.  R.  Co. 

E.  G.  Selchow 
J.  H.  Sherwood 
Israel  Stone 
Jacob  Smith 

T.  M.  Seaver 
Geo.  Schultz 
Howard  Spear 
H.  S.  Sniffen 
J.  K.  Smyth 
Walter  Scott  &  Co. 
Bartlett  Smith 
P.  S.  Sullivan 
•Mr.  Stager 

B.  Spaulding 
W.  H.  Stafford 
John  Shrady 

F.  R.  Spencer 
Schieldwachter  &  Co. 
Wm.  Schaffer 

Wm.  Smith 

P.  V.  Stocky 

Rev.  G.  W.  Samson 

C.  Sulzer 

E.  D.  Sniffer 
T.  W.  Smith 
Jas.  L.  Shipman  &  Sons 


Frank  E.  Towle 
Jas  D.  Trimble 
T.  B.  Tappen 

E.  R.  Tuthill 
J.  H.  Taylor 

F.  J.  Thornton 
W.  L.  Thompson 
Chas.  B.  Tooker 
Richard  Taylor 
J.  D.  Thees 

T.  F.  Tone 

D.  W.  Thompson 

G.  W.  Toop 
Rollin  Tracy 
W.  E.  Trotter 
Ezra  A.  Tuttle 
C.  A.  Tappan 

J.  W.  &  A.  A.  Teets 
Geo.  W.  Thompson 
Third  Ave.  R.  R.  Co. 
F.  Thieleman 
J.  H.  C.  Thompson 
F.  J.  Thompson 

A.  W.  Trotter 
L.  Tannenbaum 
Geo.  Tiefel 
Jas.  Tuomey 

B.  C.  Thompson 
Jas.  Turnbull 
A.  M.  Underbill 

E.  M.  Upton 
M.  Untermeyer 
H.  Vogel 


Harlem  Celebration  of  1886. 


59 


A.  G.  N.  Vermilyea 
J.  Vanderhalven 
J.  E.  Van  De  Carr 

C.  Vanderbilt 

F.  W.  Vanderbilt 
Jno.  Van  Gilder 
A.  Van  Duzen 

D.  Vanderhalven 
J.  M.  Valentine 
Mr.  Van  Cott 

H.  C.  Van  Orden 

E.  L.  Vermilyea 
A.  J.  White 

W.  A.  Woodhull 
W.  T.  Marwin 
R.  Webber 
H.  Wilson 
S.  J.  Williams 
S.  Wehrenberg 
W.  T.  Wood 
A.  B.  Wood 
Washington  Heights 

tury  Club 
H.  A.  Woodruff 
M.  S.  Wise 
S.  L.  H.  Ward 


L.  C.  Warner 
J.  Wohlfairth 

B.  Wertheimer 
W.  S.  Webb 
H.  W.  Webb 
J.  W.  Whitney 
W.  Winsor 
Thos.  Wright 
M.  F.  Wood 

J.  P.  Wardlow 
H.  D.  Warren 
R.  L.  Walters 
John  Whalen 
Oscar  Wavle 
E.  G.  Whitaker 
J.  Wessels 

C.  Wanier 
Henry  Welsh 

D.  Wilson 
T.  W.  Walsh 
W.  W.  White 

Cen-     Chas.  Welde 
J.  Washburn 
Chas.  A.  Yost 
D.  G.  Yuengling 
H.  Zabinski 

A.  Zuracaldy 


APPENDIX. 


PILGRIM  CHURCH  OF  NEW  YORK, 

Madison  Ave.,  Cor.  izistSt., 
REV.  SAMUEL  H.  VIRGIN,  D.D.,  PASTOR. 

RESIDENCE  16  EAST  i2$TH  ST. 

NEW  YORK,  March  23,  1887. 
CHAS.  W.  DAYTON,  Esq.  : 

MY  DEAR  SIR. — The  Good  Book  tells  us  that  in 
heaven  are  "  golden  vials  full  of  odors  which  are  the 
prayers  of  saints."  It  would  be  necessary  for  me  to  ob- 
tain access  to  those  heavenly  receptacles  to  recover  the 
text  of  the  prayer  offered  last  Fourth  of  July.  It  is  next 
to  impossible  for  me  to  recall  enough  of  a  sermon  or 
address,  after  its  delivery,  for  publication,  but  a  prayer, 
like  the  odors  of  last  summer's  flowers,  would  be  among 
the  things  impossible  to  recover.  I  am  sorry,  for  I  should 
like  to  help  you  in  making  your  record  complete. 

Very  cordially  yours, 

SAMUEL  H.  VIRGIN. 


60 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


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